Title: All The Difference

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Has references to all Stargate series seasons. Buffy to the end of Season 3

Rating: MA

Disclaimer: Don't own SG1, Buffy or any other character from a recognised series.

Summary: SG1 gets some help from an unexpected source… The future.

" " denotes speech, ' ' denotes thought.

AN: Deviates from just after Learning Curve in season 3 (1999).


Xander walked into the new cemetery at the Yard. Along one side of the path were three gravestones, for those fallen on fleet capital ships, and the other had eight, for fleet fighter pilots. As he approached he saw a figure standing in front two of the fighter pilot graves.

"Major Carter." He said, nodding.

"Captain Harris." She said, noting his recent promotion. "Who are you here to see?"

"Katherine Jones." He said, indicating to the grave of the fallen Order member from the Brynhild. "She was a friend. I recruited her. Told her folks that we would take care of her. You?"

"Colonel Wilkins and Major Smith." She replied. "We went through the Academy together."

Both of them lapsed into silence as they said their goodbyes. The formal ceremony had occurred two days before with the full military honours and the weeping relatives. This was a more personal farewell. After several minutes Xander laid a single orchard on the grave. Orchards had been Katherine's favourite. Xander turned and walked back towards the buildings, noticing Sam waiting. As he passed she fell in beside him.

"How's the crew?" she asked.

"Ymi, Williams and White are good. They are working well together, and so is the new mechanic. Stapanic was only on temp assignment, he'll be on Dodge's crew. New Mechanic, Airman Siler." Xander said.

"We have a Sergeant named Siler." Carter said.

"Ours is his Nephew. Large Screwdriver."

"Big Wrench." Sam replied with a smile. "So who's going to command her?"

"We have a new Navy Lieutenant coming in as XO. Have not met them yet but they have a good record. The new Captain has yet to be assigned."

They walked on in silence for a while.

"Why not you in command?" Carter asked. "I recommended you for the post."

Xander stopped dead, staring at Sam.

"I had no idea." He said, starting back through the buildings. "I mean they offered it to me, but there's still so much to do here."

"I understand. It was a pleasure to serve with you. Give my regards to the crew." She replied.

They finally reached the Sam's car back to Cheyenne Mountain and were met by two Airmen who were waiting next to four medium sided metal cases. Each case was marked with a serial number and the name of one of the members of SG1.

"What are these?" Sam asked.

Xander retrieved the case marked Carter and placed it on the hood of the waiting car.

"Take a look." He said. "They are fresh out of the shop."

Sam clicked the locks and opened the case. Inside were two items. The first seemed to be some kind of bodysuit with what looked like dozens of small trauma plates. The second was a new assault rifle.

"Wow" Sam whispered.

Xander could not help but smile at her expression.

'Like a kid in an electronics shop.' He thought, with an odd notion he had said that before.

"The armour is a new Kevlar, Trinium nanotube bodysuit with composite Kevlar and Ceramic trauma plates designed to be worn either by it self under a normal uniform or as the base component of a fully feedback responsive, servo amplifying powered armour suit." He said, before giving a slight grin. "Seeing as each bodysuit is more difficult to fabricate than a Prometheus, the powered armour suits are going to take a while. Don't be fooled though. Those bodysuits are tough enough to take a full clip from an M-16 at fifty meters dead on, or a burst from a SAW. As for Staff weapons, it will take at least five direct shots before being compromised."

"That's amazing!" Sam said.

"Isn't it." Xander agreed. "Of course apart from one prototype that we tested to destruction, those four are the only ones in existence. Each specifically tailored to their owner based on Doctor Frasier's last MRI scan."

"Very nice." Sam said, feeling the material of the bodysuit, before hefting the assault rifle out of the case. "Ugh. Heavy."

"Those are for emergency situations." Xander warned. "We only have five hundred rounds each fabricated. It will be over a month before the next batch is ready."

"A month?" Sam exclaimed. "Why so long?"

"Because they fire .44 calibre rocket propelled, caseless titanium coated high explosive mass reactive tumblers. Once they leave the muzzle, the rocket booster ignites to increase their velocity. With the titanium coating it can penetrate Jaffa armour, normal Kevlar body armour, even lightly armoured vehicles. When the round hits flesh the titanium coating peels off like flower petals and the round starts tumbling. When the round hits any object the rocket boosters auto shut off, the bullet waits one second and then explodes."

"Holy shit!"

"Yeah. As they take 100 round magazines and can fire at 700 rounds a minute, that's a lot of fire power. These rifles have been set to single shot and three round burst. They can be modified later to full auto but for now we don't want anyone "Rock and Rolling" with them. Especially as each bullet costs about 5 thousand dollars to create."

"Got it." Sam replied, nodding thoughtfully. "I will let Colonel O'Neill know."

Sam replaced the rifle and closed the case. At Xander's gesture the two Airmen loaded the other cases in the trunk but Sam kept a hold of hers.

"Let us know when you figure out how to make them faster and cheaper. The fabrication process has been emailed to you."

Sam frowned. How had he known that's what she was thinking? Her frown caused him to chuckle.

"I grew up with a tech genius. You all get this look when you are tying to make things better." He explained. "By the way, the email with the specs came from me. All our tech geeks were drooling with the thought of getting your email address that we could not trust any of them to send it to you."

That actually made Sam blush. She quickly got in the car to cover the blush, missing the lopsided grin that crept across Xander's face.


The conference table was full. Captain Xander Harris was finishing his briefing to the Fleet and Order leadership group.

"The PM-01 'Prometheus' has taken up station in the orbit of Jupiter after a successful two month shakedown cruise. The PM-02 'Damocles' is still in orbit performing their shakedown cruise. Boarding and counter-boarding exercises were performed upon the Prometheus and Damocles with the Fleet Marines. Their opponents were the members of the Apophis' human training Cadre SG1 deprogrammed who chose to return to Earth rather than their original planets, with SG1 supervising."

Everyone around the table watched the briefing video with images of Captains Rodgers and Nelson and their non-Earth Human troops either raiding the Prometheus or Damocles, dressed as either Jaffa or SGC dressed infiltrators, or acting as Jaffa crew against the Fleet Marines on the borrowed Tok'Ra ship Kes'lat.

Scenes played quickly. Ingtar fire fights in corridors. A seemingly normal scene until some fleet crewmen got ambushed by Rodger's men in Fleet uniforms.

"Full analysis is provided in the reports of SG1, Captains Rodgers and Nelson, and the Fleet Marine commanding officers are all in front of you. Next we will hear from Commander Dodge about the fleet production, then War Mistress Mclay will provide updates on the Order and Lieutenant Gant will give her assessment of the Fleet Marine training."

Xander took his seat at the head of the table as Commander Tom Dodge stood to outline the progress of the shipyard. Prometheus' 3 and 4, named 'Ulysses' and 'Agamemnon', were nearing completion. Two more squadrons each of F302's and SA-43's had been formed. Production of both fighters had recommenced and were still ahead of trained pilots. Another three Valkyries were completed and a third set were well under way.

Finishing his report, Commander Dodge gave way to War Mistress Mclay. The blonde Witch had grown in confidence from the shy girl Xander had met at the SGC into the competent and powerful leader. She outline the training progress and the small but growing number of fully trained Order members.

"What bout the possibility of magical transport for boarding operations as opposed to Rings or Asguard transports?" One of the Fleet Marines asked.

"Not viable." Professor Trickett replied.

"Why not?" Lieutenant Gant asked.

"You can't beat the physics of it." The Professor replied, earning one or two chuckles. "Without the proper ritual, which can take up to eight hours to perform, there are only two or three people on the entire planet, one being the War Mistress, who could do it within viable combat timeframes, if they are willing to pay the price."

"And what would be the price?" Captain Harris asked, not because he did not know, but for the benefit of the other military personnel.

"I would die." Tara replied calmly.

"Suggestion withdrawn." The original Marine said, embarrassed.

Everyone liked the War Mistress. Tara finished the report and gave way for Marine Lieutenant Gant to give her report. The Fleet Marine's training was proceeding nicely. Enough Space Combat Armour, armour that both has better protection than normal Kevlar (but nowhere near as much as the bodysuit given to SG1) and provided full life support, had been produced that specialist Boarding troops, under Lieutenant Gant's command, have been pioneering a specialist space walk style boarding action.

A knock at the door interrupted the meeting, followed by an Airman.

"Captain Harris, Sir? Sorry to interrupt but you have an emergency call from a Mister Giles in Sunnydale." The Airman said.

"Please excuse me. This may be a class nine situation." Xander said, leaving the briefing.

TBC…